Period. End of Sentence, earned best short documentary at the 2019 Oscars, marking a huge step for menstrual equity and access to period products. The film was directed by Iranian-American filmmaker Rayka Zehtabchi and co-produced by Guneet Monga from India, who in the past has produced many feature films and documentaries including The Lunchbox, Gangs of Wasseypur, Masaan, Tigers and Haraamkhor. Director Rayka Zehtabchi’s short film had faced competition other movies like End Game, Black Sheep, Lifeboat and A Night at the Garden.
The documented movie dashes the journey of women of Hapur district near Delhi, who don’t have good access to menstrual goods and the influence that has on their lives — including ending their education. The short film is a deep-dive into the all-embracing disgrace that comes with dealing with all-things-menstruation — from the absence of data with reverence to menstrual sanitation to providing women with sanitary pad-making machines. The film also features Arunachalam Murugantham, the man whose life enthused Akshay Kumar starrer ‘Pad Man’.
Zehtabchi was asked if there was a specific ‘hard-hitting emotional moment’ on the film that made her realize the project was worth it. She began, ‘When I was in India shooting with Sam Davis, my creative partner, we surveyed hundreds of women and men and some of the responses that we would hear about what menstruation is when women who had been menstruating their entire lives couldn’t tell us what a period was. They didn’t know or understand why they would menstruate each month. In fact, they had gone their entire lives believing they had an illness.’
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‘To Every Girl on This Earth… Know That You Are a Goddess…’ tweeted Monga post the win.
After menstruation’s conventional Bollywood debut through ‘Pad Man’, this Academy Award-winning documentary will optimistically help lift the bloody menstruation taboo has emerged like a dark cloud over Indian women and young girls for far too long.
